The ITVS Indies Roundup

A curated list of indie news and recommendations from ITVS’s Rebecca Huval.

Want a work-related excuse to visit the Big Apple? Our friends at POV are hosting a hackathon for storytellers and developers on the weekend of August 11-12 in NYC. The call for participants opened this week, and the deadline is June 29. Thankfully, the filmmaker applications look like a breeze to fill out. Sometimes, the technology to tell a particular story is just out of reach. The 1938 science short film Color Vision explained how human and other animal eyes see color, more than a decade before color film had been developed. The filmmaker of Helvetica is back in style. Gary Hustwit was a master at crowdfunding before Kickstarter was even launched, and his latest Olympic Games photo project has raised $12,000 with 28 days to go.

For more crowdfunding inspiration, check out these five high-tech Kickstarter campaigns that push the creative envelope, including a proposal to preserve the homepages of news websites for posterity. R.I.P. microfilm. (via @GOOD) With so many options for online movie streaming, it makes you wonder: Could YouTube squash indie film festivals? (via @shortoftheweek) China has its own version of Hawaii. This and other surprises from Beijing-based photographers Biel Calderon and Mark Esplin as they shoot their own perspectives on palm-tree-patterned Chinese tourists. 

Shooting food is all about the lighting, yes, but it’s also about the eaters. Photographer Penny De Los Santos tells Wired how she reached her breakthrough to capture culinary stories around the world: “Even though it doesn’t move, food still has a moment.” If you’re still hungry for more food stories, check out the lovely portfolio of the documentary team Vittles. They specialize in lyrical short documentaries about food and the people who make it. (via @CDSduke)